Joint for securing the ends of railway-bars



UNITED STATES PATEN T OFFICE AUGUSTUS PLINTA, OF ALBANY, NEW YORK.

JOINT FOR SECURING THE ENDS OF RAILWAY-BARS.

Specicaton of Letters Patent No. 22,031, dated November 9, 1858.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS PLINTA, of the city of Albany, State of New York, have invented a new and useful improvement in the construction of railroad-rails, together with the method of connecting and securing them to each other end with end; and I declare the following specification, with the drawings hereto attached as part of the same, to be a full and perfect description of my invention.

Similar letters in the different figures denote the same parts of the apparatus.

My rail itself is essentially a hollow tube constructed of an arch and reverse arch the arches being circular asshown at A, Figure l, or elliptical as Fig. 6, the bases of the arches joining each other, or the arches, where a high narrow rail is needed may be separated by a vertical wall, as is shown in Fig. 7, where two circular arches are separated by the walls -y. This tube rests upon, as part of its structure, a foot or flange a, a, of the usual form, being lateral eXtensions of the lower portions of the reverse arch, and as a face for the tread of car wheels it has a facev projecting from the inner segment of the upper arch, the surface of this face being a slightly curved tangent to the vertical diameter of the circle of the arch, the inner edge 'of the face rounding off into a lip c; so that the pressure of a wheel may bewithin and upon the inner half of the rail, while' its flange shall be kept a proper distance from the rail and its appendages.

For the convenience of changing the rail end for end, if desirable, the outer upper segment of the rail may be extended like the inner segment as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. l.

At each end of the rail, there is a slot G out through the center of its bottom which extends some inches whose purpose will be described directly.

The rail is to be secured to the ties in the usual way at its flanges by hook headed spikes K.

Having described my rail, I proceed to show the manner by which I secure the ends of the rails to eachother. To the cavity of the rail there is litted a dowel B which may be a solid plug or a tube, of such length as may be best adapted to strength and convenience in working. The dowel (see Figs. 4L and 5) has a recess c, e, cut up into and across its lower periphery fitted to receive the upper portion of a wedge 0r key D,having a double slope or bevel so as to wedge in a vertical and horizont-al direction. This key passes through a slot fitted for it, cut the one half into the end of each contiguous rail (see Fig. 2). The obj ect of this key, it will be seen, is to press up and support the dowel B against the upper surface of the rail cavity so as to keep the upper surface of the rails in line, and transmit the pressure of the load passing over the rail through the arches down to the flanges a, a. y f

To further strengthen the rails at the point of separation the spaces between the reversed arcs and the flanges have tted into them washers C and C through which the key D passes, and on the outer side of the washer C the key D is pierced with slots f, f for two (or more) key shaped spikes E, E, which also pass through square notches in the flange, and then into the crosstie on which the rails rest, so that these keys perform the functions of tightening the key D so keeping the dowel up to its place, holding the washers firmly into their angular spaces keeping the rails in their places longitudinally, and holding the rail down to the tie without a chair.

In order to allow of the removal of one of the rails at any point, without disturbing a series of them, it becomes necessary to move the dowel entirely within the cavity of one of the rails. To do this a pin F passing through the slot G is attached to the dowel, so that by it as a handle moving in the slot the dowel can be slid within the rail leaving the section piece to be lifted out of the line of rails.

The advantage of this form of construction and arrangement of rail is I, its great strength from its arch form the properties of which to resist change of shape by direct pressure or torsion is too well known to require illustration; II, its lightness of structure, the quantity of metal requisite to give strength equal to the I rail being 20 to 25 per cent less; III. the strength and immobility of the dowel in keeping the rails in line, and the simple mode of adjusting any variation from line; which any one of the mils can be taken up and relaid.

That I claiin is- The formation of a smooth joint Where the ends of hollowT rails meet, by inserting therein a plug of iron, or doWel, movable by a pin F, in combination With L transverse IV, the promptness with wedge D, Washers C, C', and Wedge shaped spikes E, E, combined and arranged substan- 10 tially as described When used Without a chair.

AUGUSTUS PLINTA.

Vitnesses E. J. MILLER, RICH. VARICK DE WITT. 

